Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Chibi Pika]

Starr snorted. "I know you can't fix everything. Just wasn't so sure that you'd figured that out yet. My friend Ajia back home is like that--always acting like the world's her responsibility, and..." She paused, shaking her head. "Look, I know we've got a mission here, but you don't have to take charge if it's killing you, alright?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I know– hey, I know that," stammered Brisa.

Her tail thrashed with the urge to defend herself, but her friend wasn't putting her down, she was smiling at her and telling her she cared, in her own odd way. Starr wasn't placing expectations on her, but relieving her of them. Wind and weather, Brisa didn't know how to show just how grateful that made her feel. She squeezed Starr's paw in hers again and–

"Fight me!" she blurted.

"Uh, what?"

"Fuckin' fight me, Starr! I wanna battle you, first chance I get!"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr narrowed her eyes, ears flattening. God dammit, and just when she thought things were going right for a change. Seemed like no matter what she did, people just got pissed at her out of nowhere.

"Look if I said something that bothered you, just fucking tell me, alright?" she muttered, glancing away. "Not a fan of guessing games."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

No! No, that wasn't–

"Y'ain't botherin' me!" she shot back. "Y'got the wrong idea, partner!"

Brisa tugged on Starr's paw, tried to meet her eye. "I wanna fight you as a friend," she said. "Battlin' is how I understand folks, how I get t'feel close to 'em. You're the most fantastic goddamn fighter I ever saw, and we ain't ever had a proper battle since..."

She winced at the memory of how stupid she'd been. "Since things were bad between us."

"But they ain't bad now! I can fuckin' talk t'you, understand where you're comin' from. That's why I wanna fight you. And goddamnit, that's all I can fuckin' think about. So say you'll fight me, Starr!"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Oh, she just wanted a damn battle. Well, that was sure better than the alternative. Even if Starr wasn't sure why the hell Brisa had to be so overdramatic about it, like she'd been sitting on this for weeks.

The last time they'd fought was a dull flicker in her memory. That didn't matter. That was then. This was now.

Starr pulled her paw back, scratching behind her ear with a dismissive shrug. "Geez, if you're that eager to throw down, all you gotta do is ask."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's ears burned a little at Starr's words. Why'd she have to do that? Treating this like no big deal, even though it meant something to Brisa.

"W-well, great! I'm glad t'hear it!"

She huffed the embarrassment away and reminded herself that this was good, that Starr had agreed to it, that they were gonna get to battle! She was practically itching for it. She didn't even care whether she won.

"Wind's honest truth, I can't fuckin' wait!" said Brisa, with a grin. Giovanni's machinations and the pressure they put on her be damned. She'd smiled more in the last few months than she had in the six years before, and she was gonna go on making the most of what she had here. Like battles with Starr.

gods, I wanna fight you every goddamn day, Brisa thought to herself.

Starr cleared her throat. She was looking at Brisa with an odd sort of smirk. What? What was it now?

"Why're y'givin' me that look?" Brisa demanded.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr eyed Brisa skeptically, face slowly splitting into a crooked grin as she realized what had just happened. "Nothing. I'm sure it'll be fun."

"Gods, I wanna fight you every goddamn day," Brisa had said. With that ridiculously overeager face, blushing up a friggin' storm. And now she just looked confused like... she really didn't know? Was she that oblivious, or...?

Well. That sure explained why she'd been so flustered earlier.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Yeah. Fer sure!"

Damn, she must be bone-tired if two double whiskeys and an embarrassing but easily-salvaged misunderstanding was all it took to get her face hot. It was hard to care when she was beyond excited at the prospect—finally!—of duelling with Starr. Now that sounded like the time of her life.

"So," she said, searching for a new topic that would let her adrenaline-thirsty heart calm down a touch, "how are things with your bonded shade?"

Starr scowled in that endearing way she had when she got mad about something she had no intention of changing. "Lexx? Don't get me started on that smug bastard..."

Brisa smiled as she listened to Starr rant about something that didn't need solving and wasn't Brisa's responsibility, and just enjoyed the comforting familiarity of Starr complaining. Until she had to go, called away by a text from Luz, it was the most at-ease she'd felt in weeks.

<><><><><>​

 

[Dragonfree]

The other Poochyena didn't go away.

It'd been a challenge to get back to drinks in the first place; Dave'd been turned away from the bar at first, politely informed if not in so many words that he looked like seven kinds of shit, and pointed to a bathhouse. He'd scrubbed the blood out of his fur, eaten an Oran Berry, and only then finally, finally made his way back to the Cauldron and ordered a goddamn whisky. But now he was on his second one and Mia had been munching on a steak sandwich for a while (apparently familiars couldn't really eat, but she just did it anyway, chunks of food murkily visible floating inside the goop of her chest), and still, still, the Shadow was lying curled up against Mia, shivering. Just the best part of this fucking evening.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Losing Sword. Losing her temper. That thing with Owen. Worrying about Astrid. Losing her temper again with Karat. Could nothing be easy? Could nothing be painless? Everything was shit and that... that meant getting drinks. Lots of drinks.

But practically the first damn thing she saw on entering the Cauldron was Dave, and the second was Dave's shadow clutching Mia. Fuck's sake.

Duty over comfort.

...eh, maybe duty and comfort could come at once. It'd be weird not to drink with him, right?

"Evenin', bartender. I'll take a dark ale, thanks kindly."

She put herself next to Dave without asking his assent, and waited for him to speak or her ale to arrive before she'd say anything to him or his odd companions.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave raised an eyebrow at Brisa. "Hi." He downed the rest of his glass and waved to the bartender for another.

"Hello," Mia said.

The other Poochyena looked up warily. "Are you here to talk about Spirit's Edge?"

Fuck's sake. "No, she isn't." Dave glared up at Brisa, eyes bloodshot. "I have not had a great fucking night."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa shook her head. "I ain't here to talk at all, just t'drink. Not surprised or unhappy t'see ya here. I weren't expectin' t'see yer Shadow, though. Must've been one especially shitty night."

She wasn't having a great time either, but at least her fucking Shadow wasn't manifesting...

 

[Dragonfree]

"Good." Dave got another glass and downed most of it.

The Shadow gave Brisa a hesitant look; Dave glared at it. "As for my night," he said, "I just got assaulted in the street by that fucking Mudkip? Apparently he's come up with some kind of batshit conspiracy theory where I'm a danger to children, and after I'd kicked his ass and was walking away, he used some kind of cheap revenge move. Still fucking hurts."

"And before that, too," muttered the other Poochyena.

"God, shut up. Why the fuck are you still here?"

The Shadow shrank back. "I'm still scared and shaken after all that. The alcohol's not really helping."

"Yeah, well, I've fucking tried to sit here and focus and you're still here."

Mia looked critically between Dave and the Shadow, then narrowed her eyes at Brisa. "Why do you say that?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa rolled her shoulders in discomfort.

"Best I can tell, shadows are the thoughts and feelings we're least comfortable with, comin' out when you're in a bind."

Her gaze drifted off into nowhere.

"I saw my shadow just the one time. She was chained up, weepin', and bleedin' from the chest. Not an encouragin' development. I don't like t'think about it all that much."

She blinked.

"Hang on, didya say Nate attacked you? Why the fuck would he get it into his head to do that?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Mia tilted her head at that explanation. "That's weird. Feelings are just neurotransmitters and neural activation within a brain. You can't have a person who's just some feelings and nothing else."

Dave gave Brisa a silent glare. "Yeah. Nate attacked me. Apparently Mia told him that I'd made her and the others, and several drinks and mental gymnastics later, therefore I'm some kind of fucking pedophile. Or something." He raised a paw towards a waiter, pointing to his glass, before knocking back the rest of it.

The other Poochyena shuddered, but said nothing.

"Do you have all his memories?" Mia was asking it, interested. "Does it split where you came out of him?" The Shadow shook its head slowly in apparent confusion.

Mia turned back to Brisa, undaunted. "Bleeding from the chest is dangerous. Did you take her to the hospital?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's lip curled back and her brow furrowed as she processed both Mia's jargon and Dave's paraphrasing of a bizarre belief.

"One thing at a time... First, we ain't exactly done any research on shadows, but fer whatever reason, Spectrum folks sure do seem to manifest 'em under great stress, and they sure do seem to behave in a manner befittin' of our figurative inner demons. That's just the way it looks.

"I don't know what the fuck was goin' through Nate's head, but I think it probably has more t'do with him than you, partner. I don't know that I've exchanged more'n a dozen words with the fella, or I'd try'n talk him round.

"And uh. No, I didn't take my shadow to the hospital. By the time I'd calmed the fuck down, she'd dissipated into nothingness. I've never been in a bad enough way since to see her again."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah, no shit it's more to do with him than me." Dave received another glass and sipped it irritably.

Mia peered at Brisa, and the Shadow, and back at Dave. "You aren't under great stress now, though."

"So you'd fucking think."

"Then why didn't it dissipate?"

"Fuck knows," Dave growled. The Shadow looked almost pleadingly at Brisa, ears flat against its head, but under Dave's critical gaze, it didn't speak.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

...'Not under great stress now'...? What?

Brisa chewed her cheek as she looked over the odd trio. Took a long drink of her beer. Flicked her tail.

"Y'all mind if'n I take our shadow companion here aside fer a minute? Fer a private conversation, like."

 

[Dragonfree]

"No," Dave snapped.

Mia cocked her head. "Why not? It would be interesting to see what happens if you're in different places."

He squeezed his eyes shut, dragged a paw over his face. Why, God, why did this have to become even more difficult with Mia there. It was hard to think. He took another gulp of his drink. "Because it's going to start saying some stupid shit, all right?"

She frowned. "Why?"

Dave waved a paw helplessly. "That's just what it fucking does."

The Shadow shook its head, turned in tight, agitated circles on its seat, trying to get comfortable, never quite managing to.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Dave's Shadow looked absolutely wretched. The sorry creature surely needed nothing so much as a kind word or a hug but... Well, Dave had been clear.

"Fine," said Brisa. "We can just drink." And she did.